I get how you can work through things, even affairs sometimes, but could you really work through it if it happened IN YOUR HOME while YOU WERE HOME?! And their kid was probably there, right? Nahh, man, that's too much. If he is doing that when you're home, then wtf is he doing outside of the home? Girls, that's what. Lotsa girls.

I've taken back an asshole. Did it for six years, even had a baby and got engaged. Just like Lauren. Wasn't until I put a deposit on our wedding venue that I had that wtf am I doing moment. Packed my shit up in one weekend and bounced. It's easier said than done. A lot of the time financial barriers exist, and it's not that easy to go out in the world and be a single mom

I think this was all a publicity stunt. The act got attention, the leaving got attention, and now being back is getting attention. More social media revenue. Does anyone even know who the other woman is?

Yes some of us have taken back assholes, (myself included) but not assholes that fucked a mutual friend in our family home downstairs while we were upstairs that we walked in on & saw with our own two eyes. I cannot believe Lauren took Javi's goofy ass back

I’m right there with you. I literally sat down at my boyfriend of 2 years’ desk and he had a dating site open on the computer. Literally just staring me in the face. Didn’t even try to hide it. And I stayed with him. I’m many years removed from that situation and I’m still so mad at myself. But it just is what is at this point.

Yep. Many of us have been there. Me included. It’s so hard. You want them to change, you hope and hope and hope that they will. You love them. But it’s never enough. Javi is a serial dater. He wants to spread his seed to all the women of the world. Lauren is clearly not high in the self esteem department and he knows it. He looks for girls down on themselves because a strong woman with high self esteem will see straight on through his bullshit. He got Kail at a low point, Bre at a low point and then Lauren. It’s totally his M.O.

The more I see and hear about Javis life as a family man, the more I think his dad must be a real piece of shit role model and Javi thinks hes the greatest. Like javi thinks its normal to cheat while simultaneously trying spawn as many kids as possible.

Lauren seems so much to me like the sweet, average girl in college who has never had a boyfriend, and feels special because a D list celebrity wants her. Poor girl! All of the "Laurens" I knew at that age found someone awesome eventually, even if it didn't work out in the long run. I wish she had been patient!

The crazy thing is she did have a boyfriend at one point. He's one of the reasons she ended up moving to SC (for work/college). That guy looked so much nicer and normal then her desperately wanting to be in Javi's realm and be his forever backup plan.

That’s true. I lost a lot of weight breastfeeding, but it seems to have just suddenly fell off the past few weeks. Obviously I could be wrong but she just looks much thinner, like a good ten pounds at least.

I hope she gets the courage to leave him soon. Sometimes women go back and leave on their own terms. I can’t even process this but my ex husband did drugs behind my back. I took him back once he stayed cleaned for 4 years then he relapsed and I found out because he was taking to long in the bathrooms. When I confronted him. I felt like he cheated on me. He lied to me broke my trust. My son was 7 months old. I left him. It was so hard but I couldn’t deal with the drugs anymore. The lying to me is just as bad as cheating.

I hope Lauren realizes sooner than later Javi is a loser. And she deserves better.

Drugs and addiction are a bit different then a person cheating though. Sorry for what happened to you because that must be insanely tough to deal with. I myself am a addict, although I have been clean for over 8 years I was doing opiates for many years. I was lying to several loved ones during that period in time no matter how much it hurt them my one and only priory was getting my next fix. Opiates literally change your brian chemistry into thinking that you need that drug to keep going, I am not that person I was when using and I still feel guilt and remorse over my actions when I was using. Still to this day I feel bad about stealing, lying and doing awful things to those I loved and cared for the most. Those are things I never thought I could or would do while clean and then I was doing them without thinking twice on drugs. The drugs not only completely changed my morals, reservations or emotions I had previously but also make you numb and emotionless so you don’t feel remorseful while high. Enough about that because I’m sure you already know most if not all of that. My point is that cheating is a much different subject and just a selfish and hurtful thing to do to someone else. Not that doing drugs behind someone’s back is an excuse, it is just much more complicated and complex then sleeping with another human being. Javi had control of himself and his emotions and still choose his terrible actions knowing the potential consequences. He also did that shit in his own home while his soon to be wife and newborn child were just feet away sleeping. He is a complete scumbag through and through and without question he will not change. I hope she matures and realizes her self worth before it’s too late. She clearly doesn’t seem to grasp that he has been the same shitty thing to multiple woman and no matter how hard she tries or how much she wants it, HE WONT CHANGE period.

I wish you the best of luck with your child and hope you have found a new partner in life that is everything you need moving forward.

I get addiction is different in ways but there was a history of lying and stealing. There is a bigger picture. He would lie about paying rent and car payment etc. I couldn’t deal with taking from our kids for dope.
I made the right choice. He is still doing the same thing 14 years later.

I hope you didn’t take that as me defending him, addiction or anything like that. I assumed that there was and still is a whole lot more to that story that you do not need to explain at all. Addicts can be the most loving humans while literally stealing money behind your back. They can also be complete horrible humans inside and out. At the end of the day it’s the drug that controls persons life and they are just a shell of someone who they once were. I’m happy that you made the correct choice and know that still even 14 years later. Once again I wish you the best of luck for you and kiddo.

Really just wanted to say that Javi is much more of a piece of shit and had everything going for him. He decided to throw it all away for a random bathroom hook up. Smh.

Oh no I didn’t ! I agree with you about how drugs control you. I come from a long line of addicts.
Thank you for your kind words.
Congrats on your sobriety !

I don’t mean to sound rude but I was in the middle of binge a new show. I am watching Animal kingdom. Its a crazy show. I had to paused it to wait for my husband to get out of the shower. Lol so I jumped on reddit.

Javi takes the cake. I don’t get men like him. His issues must go deep. I wonder if he grew up seeing his dad cheating on his mom? Apparently he thinks it is ok? I hate Javi and his lips.

I do believe that he did see one of his parents cheating on the other. He does probably believe that makes it okay in some sick twisted way. I just hate how much of a “perfect husband & family man” he likes to pray on teen mom yet he is clearly just a scumbag deep down. I wish that Lauren just realized her value and didn’t even get with him in the first place or even ran once she saw all those red flags pop up. Her basically locked her down for life by having her move several states away, knocking her up fast and then proposed to her all with in such a short period of time. Hopefully she just wakes up one day and realizes this is not the life she wants for herself and knows her self worth deserves better.

Btw yes his fish lips and mouth breathing drive me up a wall and heavily send the creep vibes!

:) It does happen on the interwebz, just very rarely nowadays. It is very refreshing though to not have people be super defensive and aggressive to something you said without even really knowing where you are coming from. I think there is also always room to agree to disagree without insulting one another, it is just hard to come by nowadays where everyone gets overly offended when that wasn't even the intention.

Maybe it’s being in California for so long, but every time I go back to New England for visits, I’m always in awe that TJ Maxx still exists. It’s such a 90s Childhood cryptid. Like Kmart or Ben Franklin (craft store in New Hampshire).

Wow, these comments about how Lauren doesn’t respect herself and how dumb she is—all of you can STFU until you have been in her shoes.

I HAVE been in her shoes. The day after my son was born, I found out his father had been having an affair since I got pregnant. And guess what, I ended up taking him back. Why?

Because I didn’t know what else to do. I had everything planned out in my head; how my life was going to be, how my sons life was going to be, how wonderful my new family was going to be. All shattered in an instant. It was a pain so deep and so all encompassing that I couldn’t even function. It was all I thought about. EVERYTHING was a reminder of his betrayal. It was honestly a pain I didn’t even know was POSSIBLE. And now I had to deal with that PLUS take care of a newborn alone? Nope, not gonna happen. I had to make a choice. I knew if I kicked him out then and tried to make it on my own, my son would end up suffering. I was in no mental state to tackle this on my own. Shit, I knew * I * wasn’t going to make it alone. So I decided for the sake of my kid to suck it up (at least temporarily) and try to work through.

I remember taking happy family pictures just like this one and feeling completely dead inside. I remember posting things on social media gloating about how happy we were, in hopes that it would magically become true because I IGd it. And, let’s be honest, in hopes that She (or anyone else he was fucking around with) would see it and leave us alone. It was all a lie, I was in a constant state of dread, anxiety, and shame. But I told myself that if I just kept on, those feelings would fade and eventually we’d be our happy little family that I had planned for.

That never happened. I ended up leaving him about six months later, WHEN I WAS READY. I honestly don’t know where my son or I would be if I had left him immediately. I might not even be here, to be honest. At the time, the lesser of two evils was to let him stay and pretend like
everything was fine. That is what I needed to do to survive, and I don’t regret doing it. I wasn’t weak for staying, I was doing what was best for myself and my son.

It’s so easy for other people to judge, but until you find yourself in that situation you truly have no idea. Cut the crap and give her a break. Assholes.

Agree a million times.
My husband is a serial cheater and I’ve stayed because same, I have literally nowhere else to go. I have no family that can take me in for a few months while I get my stuff together. Plus like you said the pain is paralyzing. It makes you really think logically.

The comments aren't a personal attack towards you. I don't think telling people to STFU and calling them assholes is warranted. This is a reality show. I'm sure plenty of users here relate to some of the girls or have been in similar situations as them. That doesn't mean they should take comments strangers are making personally.

If I could up vote this a 1000 times I would! Lauren staying with Javi affects NO ONE but her and her son and I can't believe how many people are getting their knickers in a knot over HER choices.

Sure, they probably wouldn't stay but they don't know what they would do until they were in her position and they shouldn't be judging her! Being a parent is bloody hard work and becoming a single mother in a separate state from her family is a big choice to make.

Thanks for sharing your story. I’m so sorry if anyone’s comments about Lauren have affected you. You seem like a strong woman to me. Sometimes doing what you can to get through is absolutely the right choice. I wish you the very best!

I didn't have kids with my abuser, but you're absolutely right that you have to leave on your own terms. I waited until I was ready, withstood 2 years of abuse, and a lot of, "it must not be so bad if you stay...".

Lauren has to figure Javi out on her own. She's blind right now and trying to keep a "family" together.

So many comments calling Lauren dumb, but I honestly wouldn’t be able to say I’d walk away with a newborn baby to take care of by myself. Maybe I would, but maybe I’d give him another chance. I can’t say because I’ve never been in her shoes. I really feel for her. Being post partum is so tough on you emotionally, she’s stronger than I’d probably be.

It's not so easy to "just leave" when you have children with someone and live states away from family and friends. As far as I know she doesn't have a job, where exactly is she suddenly supposed to go? If she does find work, she will need to prove income for at least two or three months before renting her own place, and in the mean time arrange childcare for Eli. Javi is a disgusting cheater for sure, but he's not physically threatening or dangerous (that we know) so it's totally reasonable that she stay living in the same home especially if they both own it.

And all of the above is her own stupid fault for re-locating her who entire life to live out her third choice trophy and then being dumb enough to get knocked up. I think she has really low self-confidence and I feel sorry for her.

I’m so shooketh, honestly. People are crying about Lauren having a baby, no job, and nowhere to go as if she didn’t move to Delaware and get pregnant out of wedlock after five minutes of being with Javi. Like what was the plan, sis???

She’s strong? Staying with a man who cheated on your in your own home while you were home is many things but strong isn’t one of them. Mind boggling would be one thing that comes to mind. She needs to have more respect for herself than to let him come crawling back.

I don’t think she’s dumb. In fact, I think she’s quite wise to Javi’s bullshit, or she’s getting to be anyway.

I think she’s just horribly insecure and has no self-respect—there’s a difference. She also is chasing after a fantasy and determined to have it, come hell or high water. But a man cheating on you the way Javi did, after the conduct he’s already shown? No. No woman with a shred of self-respect would have stayed, let alone back to shopping at TJ Maxx for kitschy holiday decor with him within a couple weeks. She’s making a huge mistake and she’s setting a bad example for Eli and any future kids by prioritizing the idea of family over her actual reality.

More likely but less dramatically exciting answer: Because she’s a new mom in a city where she knows no one, hoping to keep her family together due to denial being a hell of a drug. So many people, especially moms, will take back a cheater the first time hoping to be able to forgive him and keep the parents together for the kid. And 99% of those moms aren’t motivated by TV fame, just real life shame. Javi will fuck up again and the growing resentment from his first infidelity will ruin the relationship for good.

Reportedly neither him nor Jo are filming for the next season. Javi said he didn’t want anything to potentially get in the way of his CrossFit gym which has been getting more successful. But unfortunately we all know that even after you quit filming the fandom will still dig up and be aware of all your drama.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens to your daughters when they don’t learn from a young age how to love and respect themselves.

They end up like this: grinning like a damn fool on social media meanwhile the whole world knows you’re just stuck in fucking Delaware with a nasty-ass fuckboy who cheated in the downstairs bathroom on you because you’re too insecure to leave, aka the living embodiment of the “this is fine” meme

Someone needs to get this woman some Lizzo and a White Claw and a fucking back bone STAT

Not always and you’ve got no real clue about their relationship behind closed doors.

Sometimes you want to try and work out out and sometimes there is life after cheating. Sometimes it breaks the wall down where you weren’t communicating and talking and the flood gates open and you are able to fix stuff.
Not always is cheating the end.

That said part behaviour is a good predictor of future behaviour and it makes me think he will do it again considering he has more than once so I don’t think this is a “the communication broke down. I felt alone, I didn’t know what to do. I started to feel worthless.” Situation and I think there’s a good chance he does it again,

If you stay with a cheater you are staying for your own selfish reasons. You are not staying for your child. Your child will sense tension between their parents even if you don’t tell them about the cheating. If they find it out they won’t respect the cheating parent nor will they respect the doormat parent that chose to stay in that shit situation for good reason. You’re showing your kid to accept mistreatment. I know this isn’t what you want to hear as a parent but it’s true. Every choice you make when it comes to your child will have consequences. I don’t know anyone that’s gone “man I wish my parent that was cheated on just took it and stayed with my other parent so I could have both parents live in the same house as me”.

That’s an excuse people make because it sounds like the right thing, but it’s bullshit.

You need to love yourself first. Staying together for the kids almost never works in the long run. Kids adapt - and are happier - when their parents are happy. Just because you’re still married/together doesn’t mean your kids are happier or better off, at all.

I’ve been cheated on. I also left a dude who got scary and abusive and was homeless for a few months, couch surfing etc. because of it. I get that it’s hard. I also get it’s still bullshit to keep yourself in a bad, emotionally dangerous place for an idea or fantasy — in this case, having a “intact family.”

She’ll leave him when/if she realizes being with him comes at the cost of loving herself, and no relationship should EVER do that to you. Doesn’t matter if he’s your kids’ dad, either.

Did you have kids with these guys? It just adds an whole different level of suck to everything. In general it might be bullshit, but most people do feel that way and those feelings are real. It’s a hard thing for sure, I do feel for Lauren.

I didn’t. But I think if I’m ever in that position, I would still leave—because I know my worth and I would never choose a man over my child. (And in my opinion, staying with a shithead isn’t about the kids—it’s a lie when people say that. It’s about staying with the dude and not wanting to be seen as failing at marriage/family stuff.)

I think I do, actually. I also grew up watching my mother get cheated on and beat up by her husband and refusing to leave. So yeah, I do understand that situation. And I still think only a person who is scared and has no sense of self-respect would stay in it, but they'll lie to themselves and use their family as an excuse and justification, because it's such an easy one. Seeing it happen to my mother is another reason why I left when it happened in my own life, and another reason why I 100 percent would not stay in that situation if I had children. I pitied my mother so much growing up and endured physical abuse at the hands of her husband trying to defend her but she still refused to leave (but he left, when police were alerted to his physical abuse of me). And it brought me huge shame and guilt that she was using me and my younger sibling as an "excuse" when we were both terrified and miserable around that shitheel, like oh, it's my fault you're so scared and unhappy then? Thanks Mom.

The reason why I have such a hard line over this, as you probably have figured out by this post, is because of what I grew up witnessing firsthand. But sure. I don't understand it because I haven't had kids yet myself. I'd take my kids and go live in a shelter or in my car until I could get on emergency assistance before I'd ever let them grow up seeing me so beaten down and lost, or more horrifically, experience it directly themselves or think for one second that I stayed in a toxic, abusive situation—physically, emotionally (because that's what cheating is), whatever—because of THEM. That's a serious mind fuck to put on a child, and they WILL realize the truth of how unhappy their parents are one day, and that's where their heads will go. Don't believe me? I was one of them.

It takes guts to leave and courage and strength and if you don't have it yet, fine, but own that shit for what it is and don't put it on your fucking kids because that's what it really means when people say they're staying "for the family."

I grew up similar you how you did except my mom was a diagnosed narcissist with a raging heroin addiction. Soooo, I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings. I just have empathy for Lauren and I can see where she could be struggling, I guess my experience effected me differently. I do think there are somethings you just can’t understand until you are a mother. I don’t think Lauren is a giant loser because she is struggling to leave someone like Javi. Like you said, cheating literally can leave you a shell of a person. If it was just as easy as walking away from abuse or infidelity the divorce rate would be much higher.

I never said I think she's a loser. I think she just doesn't have any self-respect and she's chasing after a fantasy with a man who has proven repeatedly that he has no respect for her. It's called tough love and it's what women in her position need to hear/read (and lets be real, we all know she will eventually read this thread, she's a lurker).

When a man tells you/shows you how he really feels about you, believe him (and repeatedly cheating, lying, calling someone your third choice, etc. are not the actions of a man who respects or is madly in love with his spouse). We also teach people how to treat us, and Lauren running back to him so quickly is just teaching Javi that there's no real consequence to mistreating her, because she'll always come back—same as she taught him that there was no real consequence to him calling her third choice on national television. Hell, thottie Brianna is a hot mess half the time but she actually HAS self-respect, and that's why she booted Javi's ass to the curb over his antics. Lauren could learn a thing or two from her.

There's no way this will end well, but she's not brave or strong enough to walk away yet to give up the fantasy, so here we are. Because yeah—no strong, self-respecting woman would take Javi back after what he did or want their son to grow up thinking it is okay to treat women the way Javi treated her. It's a shame because all this time she wastes on this chode is taking her away from finding a dude who is actually right for her—one who will act like he won the lottery just getting a chance to be near her, who will actually love and respect her and be a good father figure to her child, and who would never DREAM of cheating on her or debasing the home they share by bringing some side chick into it. It's also sad that she's more than likely going to bring another child into this situation, because I totally see a band-aid baby in the offing for those two. It's sad as hell. But hey, if one baby didn't make him love you and be true and faithful to you for all time, a second one definitely does, right?

Since I assume you are a mother from the various references you've made about how only a mother could understand why Lauren is staying, hopefully you were brave and strong enough to get out of your own situation, and hopefully you're raising your kids to have more self-respect from the get-go than to tolerate mistreatment of any sort from a spouse or partner.

As much as I dislike Javi I have to agree. I chose to have a child with what turned out to be a serial cheater. I was never raised I’m a home without love or low self esteem, I was just scared to “fail my family”